Vancouver, Washington Social Security Disability Law Blog

Washington State readers of this blog may have heard that the American Psychiatric Association will soon issue a new edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The manual, commonly referred to as the DSM, is considered a standard reference book for the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders and illnesses.

Among the conditions that the APA is expected to alter is autism. Experts believe that the organization's new definition of autism will restrict its diagnosis to fewer people, including those who have been previously diagnosed with the condition. If so, the new definition could negatively affect peoples' application for Social Security disability benefits.

One of the important issues being raised in the race for the Republican presidential nomination is government spending. Most of the candidates and many conservative voters see the federal government as too large and in need of significant cuts. But when it comes to specifics, many see programs like Social Security disability insurance as too important to be cut.

With the South Carolina Republican primary on Jan. 21, it may be interesting to hear what residents of that state think about the possibility of cutting the SSDI program. One 54-year-old woman said she believes that the federal government wastes money on unproductive agencies. But as a former nurse unable to work anymore, she and her family depends in part on Social Security disability benefits, so it is unlikely she would favor cuts to that program.

Though we have heard some fairly encouraging employment figures lately, hundreds of thousands of people in Washington State and across the U.S. are unemployed and have been so for months, sometimes years. Many have turned to unemployment benefits to get by, but those benefits do not last forever.

And so, according to a pair of recent studies, many people are applying for Social Security disability benefits when their unemployment benefits run out. The rise in applications has led to a sharp increase in the number of people receiving benefits over the past decade. Since 2002, the number of people receiving SSD benefits has increased 47 percent to 10.6 million. The White House's Council of Economic Advisors estimates that more than 10 percent of people in poverty between ages 50 and 65 apply soon after their unemployment stops.

A longtime resident of Yakima, Washington was sentenced by a federal court judge to eight years in prison on Dec. 12 and ordered to pay back the thousands of dollars he fraudulently received in Social Security disability benefits and other welfare. The man claimed to have been a Marine Corps veteran who was wounded in the Vietnam War, but authorities said the story was bogus.

The man, who was prosecuted under the name he used while living in Yakima but allegedly was born in Mexico under a different name, applied for Social Security disability in 1990 for injuries he claimed were sustained in combat. The benefits were granted and the man received more than $128,000 from the fund over 20 years, authorities said.